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Meet Dr. Anthony Saechao!
Dr. Anthony Saechao is a kind, courteous, and enthusiastic care provider. Anthony attended Cal State University Sonoma where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. During his studies, he developed a fascination with the proper function of the human body, especially as it relates to movement. Noticing this passion, a fellow student encouraged Anthony to become a doctor of chiropractic.
Anthony started his postgraduate education at Life Chiropractic College West. There he discovered the body’s amazing ability to heal when the nervous system functions properly. He also learned that interference between the nervous system and the body can cause a host of maladies but that through chiropractic adjustments proper function and thus proper communication is restored.
To help make ends meet during chiropractic school, Anthony worked as a personal trainer. As a fit and dedicated individual, working towards a professional degree that focuses on human movement, it was a natural fit. As a personal trainer, he focused on helping individuals with proper kinematic exercises and educating them on the importance of self-care.
Dr. Saechao graduated from chiropractic college in 2017. Since then he has dedicated himself to the art of the adjustment and in serving others. Dr. Saechao’s mission is to help as many people as possible function as best they can using regular chiropractic care while also encouraging patients to develop healthy habits in exercise and diet on their own.
When not working at the office, you can find Dr. Saechao taking care of himself at the gym, studying the principles of chiropractic, or spending time with his siblings. He is fluent in both English and Mienh and always strives to communicate his message on how to achieve better health.
When Adjusting the SI Joint Isn’t Enough
If you have never had SI joint pain, you are probably wondering where this particular joint is located. If you have had or currently have SI joint pain, you know it can be a pain in the butt, literally. The Si joint or sacroiliac joint is formed by the sacrum, the trapezoidal bone below the lumbar spine and above the coccyx, and the pelvis, or ilia. There are two joints on either side of the sacrum. The movement of the SI joint is called nutation and it is pretty slight. One does not really even notice the movement until it gets stuck and then it is all too obvious.
A chiropractic adjustment can do wonders to relieve the pain associated with an SI joint that is not moving properly. I have found that using the drop table is particularly effective. I usually follow it up with a side posture adjustment. Sometimes, however, that is not enough. On occasion, I find a stuck SI joint even after the adjustment. In these situations, I look to the pubic symphysis.
The pubic symphysis is a tricky joint. It is formed where the pelvis meets in front. It is a cartilaginous joint that is planar. What I find when something is wrong is one of the pubic rami is higher than the other. Because the pubic symphysis is on the opposite side of the SI joint but still the same bone, if it is not moving right, the Si joint will have problems, too. I use an activator to adjust the pubic symphysis. This is a fairly sensitive area so using the activator makes it more comfortable both physically and socially.
So if you are having problems getting the results you need from a typical SI joint adjustment, have your chiropractor check your pubic symphysis. As with all treatment, it can take several visits before you see significant results. Still, you should start seeing some signs of improvement fairly quickly to help you know you are on the right path.
5 Things to Consider When Looking for a Chiropractor
It can be tough finding a chiropractor that you can trust and who will be the right fit for what you want and need. This list is by no means comprehensive but over the years I have noticed trends that can help you pick the right doctor of chiropractic for you and your family.
- What style of Chiropractic do you prefer? Chiropractors have a fairly broad scope of practice and have expertise in many different styles and methods. Do a little research on the doctor before you go in. Read the doctor’s bio. Look at how they practice. Some chiropractors just adjust, which is what we do in our office. Some emphasize nutrition. A lot of chiropractors really want to treat the whole body and have a lot of extra equipment and programs to help improve your health on all levels. Others only focus on pain relief. Every chiropractor has their own individual style but there are also various technique systems. There is Gonstead, Applied Kinesiology, Activator, Sacro-Occipital Technique, and the list goes on. If you know you like a style, look for a doc who practices that way. If you have no preference, in terms of style, look for someone with similar values or who is likeminded.
- What type of care do you want/need? There are basically three types of care and some chiropractors do all three and some only do one or two. The three types of care are acute or symptom care, corrective or rehab care, and maintenance. It can be frustrating to see a chiropractor who only wants to do long term corrective care if you only want to focus on your symptoms. Likewise, it can be a problem if you really want corrective care and to rehab from an injury and the doctor only wants to see you when you have pain. On that same note, some patients are put off by chiropractors who recommend nutritional supplements, orthotics, pillows, or other corrective equipment. Other patients want and need a bigger commitment to improving their health. Finally, some chiropractic offices have physiotherapies like electrical stimulation, lasers, ultrasound, heat, massaging tables, and ice packs. Therapy takes longer to utilize. Some patients like the extra time spent in the office. Others just want a quick treatment. The type of care may change based on your symptoms and healing progress so be sure to find a chiropractor who can either adapt or is in line with what you need at the moment.
- How far away is the doctor’s practice from where you live or work? This may seem obvious but I see people all of the time who come from a long way away because their friend referred me or they didn’t put in their location in the search parameters before they read my reviews. Most chiropractors will want to see you more in the beginning sometimes as much as every day. Travel time and gas costs add up. It is best to decide early if commuting to get adjusted is worth it. You also need to consider if it is better to find a doc closer to your work or to your home depending on your work hours and the doctor’s schedule.
- Do the doctor’s hours work for your schedule? Most people lead busy lives. There is a lot to do in a day. You need to consider whether your doctor’s hours and schedule work for your lifestyle. Does early work for you or do need someone open late? Are they open on the weekend? Further, do they require an appointment or do they take walk-ins? Most doctors prefer to make appointments for new patients and some always require an appointment. You need to decide if it is better for you to have scheduled appointments or not? On that same note, if the doctor only takes appointments, do they run on-time?
- Do the doctor’s fees work for your budget? Healthcare these days is expensive. Doctors have a lot of overhead because of licensure, regulation and the cost of rent and payroll. Because of that, doctors’ fees range greatly. A good rule of thumb is to ask how much an adjustment costs. Chiropractic Economics Magazine puts the national average cost of an adjustment at $65. Most docs will charge more for therapies and other services, so keep that in mind. Whatever the fees, make sure you have a way to pay for the cost of the care you need. Most chiropractors have plans that can help save you some money if you pre-pay. Insurance can also help but is not always very reliable. Going in with a fair idea of what it will cost definitely helps you make a good buying decision. If money is a concern, discussing fees with the doctor after they have a good idea of what you care will look like is very important.
Time Vs. Expertise
There is a story about a remote research facility that was having a problem with their generator. They tried to get a few technicians to fix it but it never worked right. Finally, they brought in an expert. The expert looked at the generator, tapped it twice and it ran perfectly. He sent the bill for $2002.00. When the scientists saw the bill they were incensed at the price for so little work on the part of the expert. They demanded an itemized statement. The expert sent one which read: $1.00 per tap x 2 taps = $2.00 + $2000 for knowing exactly where to tap.
I tell this story to help people understand that when you meet with an expert it is about their skills, knowledge, and experience, not their time. I have patients come in who are surprised at how much an adjustment costs considering how little time it takes. We are especially expedient in our office. To those patients I say, you are not buying our time, you are buying our expertise.
Most patients love that they can come into our office and get a great adjustment in a short amount of time. It does not take us long to figure out what is going on with a patient and adjustments by their nature are quick. We don’t do therapies like e-stim and ultrasound. We are not nutritional counselors. I have no problem with chiropractors who do that but that is just not how we choose to practice. We focus on giving good adjustments that help people with their busy lives.
In addition, the greatest benefit of chiropractic is not an adjustment but regular and consistent adjustments. We really encourage patients to get adjusted often and regularly by making it convenient and quick to come in. We also make it very affordable to get adjusted a lot. The price per adjustment if you just come in once in a long while is expensive. However, if you want to come in regularly, the price per adjustment is downright cheap in our office.
We will always strive to spend as much time as you need to give you a great adjustment. We are here to listen to your concerns. We never want patients to feel rushed. That saying, care in our office is not based on time. Care is based on service done with skill and care.
***Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash
This Chiropractor’s Perspective on Mandatory Vaccination
I have stayed away from the topic of vaccinations in my practice because it is very emotional for both sides of the argument and it is not necessarily relevant to what I do as a chiropractor. However, this is more about freedom and healthcare and I am finally ready to share my thoughts. I know some of you will disagree on different points. To that, I say, great! Science is all about looking at an issue from several angles and sharing perspectives. Science does not own truth nor does it ever espouse it. Science seeks to hypothesize, observe under certain conditions, and theorize. That saying, I am very concerned with any side of an argument that claims to use science to hammer their agenda to the point of a mandate.
State Senator Richard Pan, who was a practicing pediatrician turned politic, has been working very hard to make vaccinations mandatory. I am sure he has his reasons and some of them may be pure but it also seems like he is being supported by those who stand to make a lot of money from the sale of these vaccinations. He started out a few years ago by passing a bill which made it illegal for parents to sign a vaccine waiver on grounds of religious or moral opposition which forced parents who are concerned about the damage a vaccine may cause to their child to get a waiver signed by a medical doctor. Now he is going after the medical doctors who signed those waivers and looking to establish a panel to overturn their opinions and make it harder, if not impossible, to get a waiver.
A few years ago, Senator Pan paraded several medical doctors who testified that they would sign waivers if they felt it was warranted. Apparently, that was a charade to pass that bill because now he does not want any individual doctor to have that kind of authority. Let’s be very clear, he is not interested in your research, your opinion, your morals, or your beliefs. Right now he is seeking to make it mandatory for all children who attend a public school to be vaccinated unless his handpicked panel decides otherwise. This is not about science, it is about control derived from money and power.
The argument for mandatory vaccines and the talking points behind them have spiraled to fear mongering. They use the theory of herd immunity as the basis of their argument. Herd immunity is the theory that if a high percentage of people are immune to a disease, presumably through vaccination, then the disease can be contained. It is not a terrible theory but there are holes in it. They also claim they need herd immunity to protect the children who cannot be vaccinated. They claim that we are putting these children at risk. Interestingly enough though, they make it sound as if unvaccinated individuals are the ones spreading the disease. This thought has been pervasive enough for the mayor or New York City to pass a decree that the unvaccinated are not allowed in the city or they will be fined.
To these points, I beg for a more scientific approach or just plain and simple logic. It is not an unvaccinated person who spreads disease but a person who has the disease. You cannot share something you don’t have or have never had. In fact, vaccinated children are 100% more likely to spread a disease they are vaccinated for than unvaccinated children. Within two weeks of being vaccinated for measles or chicken pox, there is a shedding period where the person can be contagious. It is rare but possible. Whereas, it is still impossible for an unvaccinated person without the disease to spread it. Besides, if you have so much faith that vaccines work, why should you be worried if you and/or your kids are vaccinated? Finally, if you are worried about the children who are unvaccinated getting the disease, I can understand the concern from your perspective but are you willing to claim that your concern is greater than the parents’? Herein lies the debate. Do you have the right to act on your differing opinion on a child who is not yours?
Those who claim the moral high ground in favor of forced vaccinations are missing the greater points of liberty and the slippery slope that can lead to the loss of all freedom. I firmly believe that almost everyone should get adjusted on a regular basis and that society would benefit from it. Would you be comfortable with me pushing to pass a law that forced you to get your children adjusted regardless of your opinion about chiropractic? What if I was reasonable at first and just said they needed a couple of adjustments? What if later I told you they needed more? What if I said, at first, that you could get a waiver if your chiropractor (and only a chiropractor) said your bones were too brittle or you have joint laxity or some other condition that might cause harm, only to then tell you that your chiropractor is not qualified to make that decision and we need to have a panel of experts whom I choose to make that for them? At first blush, this is ridiculous, yet, we are at this point right now with our rights to choose the care we feel best for our children as the stakes.
If forced vaccinations for children going to school passes, what is next? Will this smarter-than-you panel of medical doctors then decide that adults must be vaccinated? Will they decide that you have no options? Will we start fining people as they have threatened in New York City? Does this sound like a conspiracy? It is! But unlike the people who are trying to convince you that the earth is flat, this conspiracy has a lot of money and power to back it up.
Again, my point is not whether you should or should not vaccinate your children. For what it is worth, my opinion is that vaccination started out as a pretty good idea. It was a risk vs. risk scenario. Introduce a little of a disease, let the immune system work its magic and create a great chance at immunity. The risk on both sides is always real. We have taken it too far, though. The pro-vaccine side seeks to dismiss any risk that the diseases, let alone the rest of the chemicals in the cocktail, pose any risk. Yes, those risks seem to be small but they are real. For some people, the risks are not only real but imminent. For those opposed to vaccines, they tend to inflate the risks. Most people who are vaccinated are not going to have a severe reaction. For those that have had severe reactions, however, it can be absolutely devastating.
I get that having the measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, chickenpox, shingles, polio, etc. can be very bad and even life-threatening. Step back from the fear and consider that the chance of infection is still very small in the United States and the risk of death is almost statistically completely improbable. Now, one can argue that it is because of the vaccines that these diseases are almost non-existent. That is a reasonable assumption but I can counter that disease comes and goes regardless. I had chicken pox as a kid. Almost everyone I know did. It wasn’t fun but it wasn’t deadly. Now, I am immune. If I keep my immune system in good shape, I will never get it, or shingles, again. No vaccine needed. Chickenpox was super rare when they came out with the vaccination. Since then, shingles and chickenpox (the same virus) have been on the rise. Maybe it is a coincidence but I reserve the right to scientifically observe to think otherwise. Observation takes time, by the way. It is OK to wait and test. There is no crisis. Furthermore, are you comfortable giving your infant a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease like HPV or hepatitis because they may choose to be promiscuous when they are teenagers? I’m not. I would rather teach them the consequences of such actions and encourage proper behavior.
The argument as to whether you should or should not vaccinate your children based on the risks on both sides of the argument is a very personal decision and should be considered with much research. Unfortunately, the research is very thin. When, how much, and what kinds of vaccines a child needs, has changed with time not based on research but on theory. Either way, your right to do so or not should be unalienable. Forced vaccination raises the same ethical arguments of the Nuremberg Trials. I am far less concerned about the possibility of more disease or more injuries. Those will cycle. If you do your best to stay healthy, your risk for either is very low. I am much more concerned about the loss of freedom. What happens when you disagree with your doctor about a procedure for you or your child in the future? Will you be forced to do the procedure anyway? Will your child be taken from you? It sounds crazy but please consider that control is always the end game even if it sold for benevolent reasons.
***Photo by Hyttalo Souza on Unsplash
Chiropractic Adjustments and the Lymph Nodes in the Neck
Chiropractic Adjustments Help the Autonomic Nervous System
The Autonomic Nervous System has two major components, the Sympathetic and the Parasympathetic. As the name implies, these systems work without thought. The Parasympathetic Nervous System controls digestion, reproduction, waste elimination, and rest. The Sympathetic Nervous System controls activity, stress, and adrenaline. The quick way to remember is that the Parasympathetic is rest and digest and the Sympathetic is fight or flight.
The two components work opposite of each other. When one is running the other defers. I like to compare it to kids on a see-saw. When one is up the other is down. When you have two relatively equal sized kids, the see-saw works well, same as a good balance in the Autonomic Nervous System. Problems arise with imbalance.
When a person has dysfunction in the spine it tends to increase Sympathetic flow. All of a sudden, we have a big kid vs. a small kid on the see-saw. With increased Sympathetic flow, the body stays in a state of agitation at the detriment to rest and digestion. This can lead to a multitude of conditions and symptoms.
Chiropractic adjustments help to restore function which helps to balance the Autonomic Nervous System. In this way, Chiropractic can help with conditions that are not musculoskeletal in nature. Chiropractors often get a bad rap for claiming to work on things like heartburn, indigestion, sleep, constipation, heart palpitations, vision issues, and the list goes on. The truth is that many of these conditions arise because of an imbalance to the Autonomic Nervous System. So, when your chiropractor asks, tell him about all of your symptoms and conditions.
3 Types of Chiropractic Care
Not everyone will fall into one of the categories specifically but, in general, there are three types of chiropractic care. The key is deciding what results you want from chiropractic care. From there, we can determine the frequency and mode of treatment.
The first type of care focuses on symptoms. A chiropractor will see you as many times as needed to reduce your symptoms to a level you can manage. This is usually short term care. Some people will stop here, deal with the manageable symptoms, and then come back when they flare up again. Pain, by the way, is the most common symptom but there are many others, as well, including, but not limited to, numbness and tingling, weakness, blurry eyes, tinnitus, heartburn, etc.
The second type of care takes into account the larger picture and seeks to restore function. I call this rehab or functional restoration care. The plan is generally the same for most people because restoring function is more predictable than reducing symptoms. While we restore function, symptoms will reduce naturally but we continue care to reinforce proper function and actual healing. Most people will need about three months of care. The frequency tends to be three times a week for about a month tapering down to twice a week for a month then once a week. By the end of three months, most people have healed enough to the point of feeling better and functioning as best as can be expected. There is variability in this care and some conditions take a lot longer.
The third type of care is maintenance. Once you have put so much effort and commitment into being your best, I feel it is best to maintain through consistent chiropractic care. Once a week is needed for some and some lucky patients can get away with once a month. Less than that and most patients are coming back with symptoms which begs the question if they are actually maintaining or just chasing their tale? We make maintenance a high priority in our office and make sure it extremely affordable.
Your results will depend on what type of care you engage and how consistently you are engaged in that care. You cannot get rehab results from a few visits of symptom care. Likewise, you cannot maintain something you have attained. Sometimes, patients want to negotiate to get rehab results by coming in once a week. I would love to be able to do that but that’s just not how the body works. For me, the ideal way to treat a patient who is injured or has chronic dysfunction is to complete a course of rehab care and follow it up with continuing maintenance care around once a week.
Back Pain and the Hip Flexor or Psoas
Often times, low back pain is exacerbated by a tight hip flexor, also known as the psoas. Getting adjusted can help reduce the stress on the psoas but sometimes you need a little more work in the form of a stretch. This video demonstrates how to stretch the difficult area. If the problem persists, we can do some myofascial work to break up adhesions. Look for a video of that in the not too distant future.